| ED MCCULLOCH: A PROUD MAN |
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Written by Jon Asher
Thursday, 02 September 2010 13:00 |
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| This is a story unlike any other you may have read about Ed “The Ace” McCulloch. It is the last time we’ll ever reference McCulloch’s early days in the sport, when his physicality wrote the headlines, not his exceptional driving skills. He is so far removed from that younger, wilder McCulloch as to be a completely different individual in 2010 than he was during that long-gone era. As McCulloch himself says, “When the guys working on the car (the Ron Capps-driven NAPA Auto Parts Dodge) hear those stories about me they don’t believe ‘em. They say they can’t be true because I’m not like that.” If they only knew, really knew. But we’re finished making those references, for this is indeed, a markedly different McCulloch.
As a driver few could match McCulloch’s intensity and desire. As a crew chief he’s retained those same traits. It’s just far less openly evident as were his emotions some years ago. When the race car doesn’t do what he expects it to there’s no head-shaking, no wrench-throwing, no shouting. There’s only the vision of McCulloch turning to head back to the rig with his head down, determined to figure out what happened and why, and to fix it.
Team owners are under a lot of pressure these days, whether they show it or not. Obtaining a sponsor is far more difficult in 2010 than it was even in 2005 – and it’s likely to get more difficult in the months ahead. Knowing this, team owners show far less patience with a recalcitrant race car today than they did yesterday. They ask more questions and make more demands on their employees than they ever have in the past, sometimes with good cause. It’s a cold, cruel world out there, and they know it. And they also know that one of the two conversations they never want to have with their sponsor begins with, “How come the car’s not running better? We’re getting killed out there by our biggest business rival!” The second conversation – far worse – begins with something like, “We’re sorry, but we’ve decided to go in a different direction. We won’t be renewing our deal with you for next year.”
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| BOTH 'BLESSED, SELFISH,' SHANE GRAY IN COUNTDOWN AS ROOKIE |
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Written by Susan Wade
Monday, 30 August 2010 12:55 |
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 What's a 38-year-old drag-racing rookie supposed to feel like?
Shane Gray, who has two Pro Stock runner-up finishes on his resume, has been a bundle of contrasting emotions this season as driver of the Big O Tires Pontiac GXP.
Calling himself both "selfish" and "blessed," Gray has been what he described as "nervous as all get-up," yet calm racing his father and even at the line against reigning champion and early-season dominator Mike Edwards.
With his runner-up finish at Brainerd, Gray improved two spots to the No. 6 position in the Countdown that starts next Thursday at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis.
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| INJURED NMCA RACER: “IT ALL HAPPENED SO FAST” |
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Written by Jason Reiss; Photos courtesy of NMCA, Rhonda McCole
Friday, 20 August 2010 11:00 |
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 It happened in the blink of an eye; at least that’s how Barbara Nesbitt remembers it.
“I reached up to pull the parachute handle and thought the nitrous bottle exploded,” Nesbitt recalled in an exclusive telephone interview Thursday afternoon.
This was Nesbitt’s first interview, just eleven days after a top-end drivetrain failure nearly took her right arm, broke a finger on her left hand, and bruised her liver and a lung, and at least three ribs while racing her Camaro at zMAX Dragway in Concord, North Carolina in the NMCA’s ARP Nostalgia Pro Street class. The car, which only had ten passes on it since its construction, had already been clocked running in the mid-7’s at over 180 MPH.
Nesbitt still isn’t sure of the exact sequence of events.
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| NMCA RACER TO LEADERS: NO WHEELIE BAR RULE IS UNSAFE |
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Written by Bobby Bennett; Photos courtesy of NMCADigital.com
Thursday, 19 August 2010 11:58 |
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The NMCA’s Pro Stock division is a naturally aspirated class designed for 1950 and newer American production cars and trucks that are equipped with  stock-type chassis and 10.5-inch wide tires. Entries are permitted small block and big block engines up to and including a maximum of 565 cubic inches (depending on combination).
Pro Stock rules permit a variety of race-proven modifications and performance ¬ enhancements on stock bodied, stock appearing -vehicles. One enhancement not allowed is the use wheelie bars.
Past NMCA champion Butch Kemp and his fellow NMCA Pro Stock racers don't like the “no wheelie bar” rule. Kemp and his peers who faithfully supported the class have decided without wheelie bars the risk is too great for the potential reward. In this case, Kemp says the reward is his just being able to race safely.
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| LARRY MORGAN: SOMEHOW WE ARE SURVIVING |
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Written by Bobby Bennett, Photos by Roger Richards
Wednesday, 18 August 2010 11:00 |
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 Larry Morgan admits he’s survived some tough seasons in his storied career but 2010 has been in a league of its own. He’s blown up enough engines and broken enough parts to leave the legendary Henry Ford shaking his head in disbelief.
He knew the year was going to be one of transition with a change of manufacturer and a new engine program. However, Morgan never envisioned the carnage would reach the level where he would be left to wonder if he’d survive financially.
“When you break seven engines and try and survive that, that’s a tough deal,” admitted a puzzled Morgan. “I am lucky to even still be here. I’m not sure how I am still here, but I am. We’re here. We’re struggling along and I’m fine with that. I could be home doing something I don’t want to do.
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| A MAN AND HIS LOVE FOR AN “OLD SCHOOL” BUS |
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Written by Stan Creekmore
Monday, 09 August 2010 11:40 |
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Ken Prather, 68, of Erie Pa., has a passion for the old school. And, his 1962 Volkswagen bus is easily the apple of any teacher's eye.
Still a work in progress, Prather purchased the German-made van so popular with hippies in the age of the “Flower Child” in 1998 with the intention of just making it into an around the town driver.
Those thoughts morphed into a reality which is to this day still a work in progress; which explains why the chopped top German automobile with a 355 ci Chevrolet V-8 tucked in the back seat area, still spends most of its time on asphalt tooling around the streets of Erie, Pa.
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| DALE PULDE'S NEW NITRO LIFE AFTER NITRO |
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Written by Todd Veney
Thursday, 22 July 2010 11:32 |
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Maybe the only thing better than seeing great Funny Cars of the '70s resurrected by today's drivers is seeing them brought back to life by the original  drivers themselves, drivers like Roger Garten and Dale Pulde.
Pulde, one of just a handful of fuel racers to have won multiple NHRA national events in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, has driven countless Funny Cars over the past 40 years, but there were just two options when it came time to choose which one to recreate: the "War Eagle" Trans Am that he and partner Mike Hamby match raced from coast to coast in the late '70s and early '80s, or the unforgettable "Miller Warrior" Buick Regal that they campaigned in 1985.
"I might have picked the Regal – a lot of people really liked that car – but it wasn't old enough, and John Powers already had a new Trans Am body for me," Pulde says. "I never would have gotten into this if it wasn't for Powers. He's the one who said, 'I think you need to be out here,' and he's the one who said he'd supply the stuff. His body is the one that caused all the controversy when it came out – it's a little too spaceship-looking for some people, I guess. I we knew when I brought it out that it was overkill. But if you think about it, Powers' cars back in the '70s were pretty zoomy, too."
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| PINT-SIZED PRO STOCK PALS PROVE DRAG RACING IS A FAMILY SPORT |
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Written by Susan Wade
Wednesday, 14 July 2010 09:40 |
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 Because they sometimes are separated by ten-thousandths of a second on the racetrack and as few as one or two points in the standings, Pro Stock drivers guard their proprietary information carefully. They frown on anyone trying to photograph their engines. They often cover up their handiwork with a blanket. They're always on guard for technology spies.
But they break out in smiles when they see their on-track rivals' children and grandchildren dash among their pits. They aren't the least bit wary of elementary-school espionage.
"They're just a bunch of kids out there having a good time," Grandpa Johnny Gray said before improving Saturday morning from fifth to second in the Pro Stock order during qualifying for the NHRA's Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways.
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| NIVER REMEMBERED AS RACER AND FRIEND |
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Written by Susan Wade; Photo by Auto Imagery
Monday, 12 July 2010 11:00 |
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 The National Hot Rod Ass'n. has confirmed that Top Alcohol Dragster racer Mark Niver, 60, of Scottsdale, Ariz., died from a top-end accident Sunday during the semifinal round of eliminations at the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways.
The King County Sheriff's Department, ruling the facility a crime scene, suspended all racing activities for about an hour and a half, pending an investigation. However, it permitted racing to finish and extended the 5:30 p.m. noise curfew to 7 p.m.
The NHRA canceled winners circle activities, save for photos that fulfilled business and contractual obligations and said its officials are investigating the accident.
A prepared statement also stated, “NHRA and Pacific Raceways officials extend their deepest sympathies to the entire Niver family.”
Niver was married and had two daughters.
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| CRASH CREATES TEST OPPORTUNITY FOR GLIDDEN |
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Written by Ian Tocher; Photos by Jeff Helmkamp
Friday, 09 July 2010 09:00 |
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 Not one to waste time, Billy Glidden is taking the opportunity to improve his program following a crash during qualifying for last weekend’s ADRL event at Heartland Park Topeka.
It marked only the second time in his career that the 2008 ADRL Extreme 10.5 champ found the wall with significant force.
“I’ve been pretty fortunate, but the first time was (about 1997) in my very first car that me and a couple of buddies built in a garage in Seymour,” he recalled. “It wasn’t built to do what we were doing with it. I had slapper bars on it—I wasn’t using them in the conventional method—but it pulled one in two and when the car got down on the rear tire it cut it and then it was pretty much the same thing, it went from the left lane over to the right and it pretty well slapped the whole right side of the car.”
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| JIM DUNN’S IMPRESSIVE DOUBLE-DUTY DAY |
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Written by Bobby Bennett; Photos by Steve Reyes
Wednesday, 07 July 2010 09:00 |
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 Racing the two nitro classes in alternating weekends wasn’t uncommon to drag racers during the 1970s. In fact, there were some who raced both at the same event, pulling off the hot-lap method of exiting one and entering the other.
Then there’s big Jim Dunn, a man for whom legendary stories are written about.
Dunn, who turned 76 earlier this year, once raced in both Funny Car and Top Fuel at the same event. While this might not seem like an earth-shattering accomplishment based on the achievements of others, consider the fact he did it with the same car.
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Feature Stories
